Finding Myself
by lovehorses13
Summary: Let me guess. You have 1, maybe 2 brothers. Try having 13. No sisters. Try having a dad who despises you and a mom who's dead. Try being chased all over the world by monsters. Try being me.
1. Chapter 1

Today was going to be the day my life changed. I could feel it even then,though I knew little then about now. And it all started with… "MACK, GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE NOW!" I looked up from my work.

"OKAY BE DOWN IN A SEC, I'M WORKING!" I yelled back to my brother, Mitchel. And Michael. And Terry, Joe, Nick, Kevin, Artie, Victor, Harold, Jake, Marc, and Henry. Did I miss anyone?

"Mackenzie, Jake wants to have a cabin meeting." Clayton said. Oh, yeah. This is my other brother Clayton. He was relatively new, though, so I was off the hook. See I live at Camp Half-Blood, I have since I was 4. Now I'm a healthy 13 yr old daughter of Hephaestus. The only daughter of Hephaestus. I know there was another girl, but apparently something happened and no one will tell me what. So, I have 12, no 13 brothers and no sisters.

"So Clayton." Jake said, being the head counselor and all. "You've been excepted to your Clearing. Report tomorrow-Mack where are you going?" I

was already out the door, tears streaming down my face. His Clearing. He'd been here two weeks. This was practically an insult! I bolted out of the Armory and didn't stop. My brown hair reaching out behind me and my scuffed sneakers flung over my shoulder, forgotten. Forgotten just like me. A Clearing is what you need if you are a Hephaestus camper. A private meeting with Dad. Nobody knows what happens until it happens to you, and then you can't tell what it is… For years I have watched older, younger, better and worse people have their Clearing. Clayton was a baby compared to me. 3 months younger, he had only been here two weeks. I had been here 9 long years. I could fight and win. Clayton could barely hold a steak knife. The only thing he had I didn't was gender. I had to be stuck with a sexist pig of a father. Thinking about only made more tears come.

"You going to run forever?" My head shot up. Nico di Angelo, the "bad boy" of camp was standing there in front of me. Girls thought he was hot. I thought he was full of crap.

"Leave me alone"

"Mack, right"

"Only my friends call me that"

"What's wrong?"

"Leave me alone"

"You really don't like me do you…"

"Bite me" He snorted and shook his head. I looked around and groaned. I was near the cabins, so close to the safety of solitude and being alone on the path.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, actually concerned. Suddenly the dinner bell gonged a great big clanging in it's usual way.

"If anyone asks, I'm going for a run." I told him. Leaving him behind confused I jogged to the one thing that had never failed-my own clearing in the woods. Good old solitude.

Puzzled, I watched Mackenzie leave. Why had she been upset? I mean, not like I cared or anything…but she had been crying. And as you learned quickly at Camp Half-Blood it took a lot to make Mackenzie Carter cry. When she was ten, and I had just gotten here, a older res kid had made fun of her. Instead of crying and making a big deal Mackenzie calmly had him pinned with a broken wrist winded and then went and ate some ice cream. And she hated me. I didn't have the slightest idea why. Still confused and curious, I made my way to dinner. Sitting down alone at my table, I looked over at the Hephaestus kids. They looked uncomfortable and kept glancing towards the path, as if searching for something. I wondered if it is Mackenzie.

"She went for a run" I called over to the 13 kids looking for her.

"I was afraid of that." Jake said. "We won't be able to find her now…" he muttered.

But I could. So I did. I followed her essence, a thing only Hades kids could do. She smelled like oh, dirt freshly turned, flowers in bloom, summer in all. It was strange for a Hades kid, but I almost liked it. Suddenly I heard a freakish scream.

"KENZIE" I called. No answer…


	2. Chapter 2

"KENZIE" I called again. I followed her essence still, but it was tainted with the slightest hint of blood. Not enough for her to be too badly hurt, but I was worried.

"NICO? NICO!" I heard a voice. Was it her?

"Mackenzie? Are you here?" I said.

"Nico, follow me, quickly." She said, already starting to run. And boy, could she run fast. Through the trees and into a small clearing by a river.

"What? Why are we here?" I asked, but then I saw him. It was a boy, 15 or 16. He was lying on the ground, bloody with limbs at uneven angles. I looked over at Mackenzie, who was obviously shaken. I could tell she was wondering what to do, but according to me, there was only one thing to do.

"I'll get Chiron" I offered. She pounced on the idea.

"Go" So I went. The next few hours were a blur of different people, different questions, but the same horrifying fact-the boy was probably going to die. Which seriously, seriously sucked.

"Hiya" Mackenzie sat down next to me, outside of the infirmary. "Good news. He talked-gurgled, really. But he is alive. Thank GOD he's alive."

"Tell you where he came from?" I asked her, flipping my dark brown hair impatiently.

"No. I'm going to bed." Shoot. Now she thinks I'm heartless. But then I noticed the hidden ambrosia as she walked away. Now why would she need that?

A few hours later

Something was wrong. I sat straight up in bed and looked around my beautiful (ha-as if) room in my black obsidian cabin. In one corner my dad's messenger from the Underworld glowed-new message. Well, that would have to wait. Pulling on my clothes and packing a sack full of my stuff, just in case, I grabbed my sword and headed out the door. To my surprise, my feet took me to the Hephaestus cabin. Was something up with Clayton, the new kid? Inside, I looked around, feeling stupid, but then I saw the note. It was sitting on the table, on it scrawled in untidy writing was this:

Hey,

Don't look for me. I'm sorry guys, but I have to do this. I can't stick around waiting for something that will never happen-my Clearing. I hope you understand.

Love, Mack

P.S. My room is booby-trapped along with my workshop/projects. Fair Warning.

I chuckled. That was so Mackenzie. Just 'I'm leaving but if anyone touches my stuff, they're dead.' Then shocked gripped me. Mackenzie was leaving? Why? What happened? Grabbing my rucksack and leaving the note where I found it, I left the door swinging behind me. There was only one exit from camp, so I figured that was where she would go. Everyone had to go by Peleus-camp rule ever since the war where Percy Jackson triumphed. When both me and Mackenzie were 13. I'm 15 now, by the way. Besides, even if we didn't, no one, not even Ares kids, are brave(or stupid) enough to go through the woods at night. Too many monsters-you'd be dead in 10 minutes. And, believe me, it wouldn't be pleasant. I talked to the last idiot who did it. He's did it in 1979 and has been wandering the Fields of Asphodel ever since.

All of a sudden, I stiffened, hearing the crack and certain vocabulary of assurance that Mackenzie was here.

"Pleasant night, don't you think, MACKENZIE?"

"Shit, why are you here?" she asked in disbelief.

"Figured if you were skipping town, I might as well come along." I smirked, knowing all the options to get rid of me quickly were running through her mind. "And if you don't let me, I'll wake everyone up. Including the entire Hephaestus cabin and the half-dead boy lying in the infirmary." She swore. Profusely, as a matter of fact.

"So can I come?" She looked at me hard for a moment. Finally, she nodded.

"If you slow me down, I'll shoot you myself." I believed it, too. I left a note where Percy would find it-on my pillow.

Left with Mack. See you when.

-Nico

"7 words in a runaway note. I think that's a record." She grinned at me from across the path up the hill back to where the gateway to the real world was.

"Naw. For me it's three, from when I was little. Bye-bye, Mommy." She laughed, and it was good. It was fine. Then the monster attacked. It was some sort of mutant-body of snake with lion legs, a bunny tail, and the head of a boar crossed with a human. All of it was a greenish goldish color. It's teeth were that of a poisonous snake. But the scariest thing were it's eyes which were strangely human, but more divine, and not in a good way. Something bigger than a Titan. And something that had a strange desire to kill us.


	3. Chapter 3

**Mackenzie's POV**

When I was little, after I came to Camp Half-Blood I was spending as much time as possible at the sword class. I was enchanted with the rhythmic moves, the dance-like qualities, and the complicated steps. I was amazed that something so beautiful and _graceful_ could be so deadly. And the minute my brother Peanut (Beckendorf's first name is Charles, Charlie, Charlie Brown, Peanut) made me my sword I was hooked. It was sort of proved when you get a five year old who beats a way more experienced Ares camper at swordplay. He was the best swordsmen in camp until I beat him. I even beat Luke, who I've always despised. Ever since, all Ares kids have hated me. Honestly? I don't give a-

The monster struck first. It had the fangs of a snake, dripping with venom. I started to circle, getting ready for the wonderful back and forth that was sword fighting when Nico charged it. My first thought was that he was an idiot, and, in a way, he was. I saw an opportunity however, and I took it. Slashing it, watching it's attention turn from Nico to me, parrying, striking, the fight went on and on. It was moments like these that made me happy I had found camp. I think I even laughed a couple of times. I was vaguely aware that Nico had stopped fighting and was watching me awestruck at my fighting. I realized he had never seen me fight before and that was a little weird. Deciding to finish it, I did a risky move that I had just mastered last month.

It almost came in steps. One: turn, no problem for me. Two: run up a tree, a bit more of a problem. Three: Jump off. I know it sounds stupid, but I had practiced, o.k.? Four: Land on the thing driving my sword in it. Five: Watch it die. Six: Look at the dumbstruck look on Nico's face. Seven: Laugh.

"Hey, it's not nice to laugh." He pouted, mock hurt. I smirked.

"You think I care?" I asked him.

"Yes" I shook my head at that.

"Let's just go." I told him. He shrugged and grabbed his pack. We headed towards Manhattan. We kept walking for a while, a few hours at least, no change in scenery except trees, when we found a bus station. I saw the relief on Nico's face and knew it mirrored my own. It took about ten minutes for the bus to appear, ten minutes of awkward silence where Nico kept stealing looks at me. By the time the bus arrived, I was fed up with it.

"If you want to ask me something, go ahead." I told him once we sat down as he was doing it _again._ I looked over in time to see him blush.

"It's just, you're really good." He said. "And, um, it's just that, um, the ones who are really good are Percy and them, and, um-"

"Nico, do yourself a favor and shut up. Being good is what happens when you hang around the best swordspeople in the camp and learn from their mistakes for nine years." I closed my eyes and leaned back against the seat. "Any more questions?" I asked, fully expecting him to say no.

"Two more actually"

"Shoot"

"I didn't see you at the final battle. Where-"

"The Clearing rule isn't lifted even in the time of battle, Nico. I was defending the camp."

"That's my other question. If you are that good how come Clayton got his Clearing before you?"

"Three guesses Nico. The first two don't count."

I turned away from him, signaling the conversation was over. Thankfully, so was our ride.

"Where are we going?" Nico asked.

"The airport." I smiled at the look on his face. Shocked, confused, irritated, all of the above.

"But Zeus-" He started, protesting. Idiot. Did he honestly think I hadn't planned for that?

"Wouldn't dare make both our fathers angry. You are Hades' only child. Zeus has already killed your mother, whom Hades genuinely loved and your sister is dead, making you even more precious. Besides, he controls the Underworld and is part of the Big Three. Zeus could barely afford to kill you under normal circumstances, but with my father mad? And believe me, my father would be mad. Zeus killed one of my brothers last year, plus Beckendorf's dead, with the added insult that I'm his only daughter. He has spent so much time making sure I don't leave that me dying would be unbearable. If he teamed up with your father, they wouldn't be easy to stop. All the other gods and goddesses would be forced to take sides. Hera is royally pissed at Zeus because of his new daughter at camp, so she would side with us. Poseidon would take Zeus's side because he hates your father. Because Athena hates Poseidon she would side with us. Should I go on?"

"No." he said, happy with my answer. Good. He should be. We caught a taxi to the airport, saying our uncle was going to meet us there, which wasn't entirely a lie. After all, Zeus _was_ Nico's uncle.

"Where are we going?" Nico asked again. I smiled.

"You will just have to wait" I said. I have to admit, I was gloating. But only a tiny bit, I promise. Well, ok, a little more than a tiny bit. The trip was fairly uneventful. Nico fell asleep and I watched T.V. since I usually had to sneak it from the Hermes cabin. There was a bunch of turbulence and a storm, but nobody died and the plane didn't crash, so I guessed I was right. It didn't matter to me anyway, at least I had showed my father I could think for myself. I woke Nico up when we were about to land.

"Welcome to Brazil. I hope you enjoy your stay." Nico turned to me. He was absolutely positively livid with rage. His face was red.

"BRAZIL! YOU TOOK ME TO BRAZIL!" He screamed.

"Well," I muttered, "you would think I dragged him here." Aloud, I told him "You are making a scene, _cousin._" I enjoyed seeing the look on his face go from mad to confused to understanding. It couldn't possibly be proper unless we were related, and we did not look alike.

"I get to pick the next place." He said sullenly.

"Fine." I told him.

"But at least the food here is good" I said.

"Why is the food good?" He asked.

"Because it is always spicy."

I watched his face turn red again.


End file.
